Concacaf boss Victor Montagliani says focused attention will be maintained in efforts to bring club football platform up to speed in the confederation’s cross-cultural spread.

In North America club football is seen to have achieved high professional standards, most notably in the USA and Mexico.

A new professional competition — the Canadian Premier League — has been inaugurated to bolster the club football layout in the Concacaf region.

It’s in the Caribbean, and Central America to a lesser extent, that club football has lagged, forcing the confederation to pay special attention through its new club competition structure and club licensing system.

Montagliani, speaking with the Jamaica Observer recently, says club football is a key pillar of his “Vision 2030” engine, and the next big conquest of Concacaf.

“I think club football is our next frontier. For the national teams we kind of laid that foundation with the Nations League, our youth tournaments have also been revamped, but we are just starting to lay the foundation for club football — and that is our next frontier,” said the confederation president.

Montagliani, who was recently returned unopposed to serve another four-year term as head of the subcontinental grouping, noted that a multi-pronged approach to club football expansion will be key to success.

“We have to ensure that you have the top of the top playing, which in our region would be Mexico and the US, but also ensuring that the foundation in professionalisation of club football in the Caribbean starts happening, and also in Central America,” he said.

“I think that is going to be one of our most important pillars in our strategic plan called Concacaf 2030, which is the club strategic planning and what we want to look like in 10 years from now, what will our professional leagues look like, what will our Champions League look like,” Montagliani went on.

He said the new Canadian professional league is already creating a buzz, with many players from the Caribbean and Central America heading there as they see it as a better career option than what obtains in their respective jurisdictions, which are at best semi-professional.

“We have a new professional league in Canada, that has got off to a good start, which has already attracted many Caribbean and Central American players.

“So it’s not just about having a league in the Caribbean or in Central America, but while that’s important it’s also about ensuring that you have a healthy league structure in our region — because at the end of the day players are going to go where they are best suited and where they are best paid, so I think that is our next real challenge,” Montagliani noted.

Club licensing, he shares, will be critical in firstly, setting the standards for clubs and to get them ready for the challenge of competing in full professional environments.

“Club licensing is very important because that speaks to the professionalisation of clubs and that sets the standards,” Montagliani said.

The Fifa vice-president linked the growth and development of regional coaches to strong club and national competitions.

“On the coaching side, coaching licensing is only an education process Coaching licensing does not develop coaches and that’s why it’s important to develop the leagues — because it’s no point licensing coaches if they can’t get a job.

“What really develops coaches is the opportunity to coach whether club or national teams; they have to be challenged and that’s what develops coaches.

“The licensing is really just a first step for that by setting the standard and ensuring that you have an education process, but if you don’t take care of the business on the development side of the sport then you are not going to develop coaches,” Montagliani reasoned.

In its club competition portfolio, Concacaf currently funds and oversees the Concacaf Caribbean Club Shield, FLOW Caribbean Club Championship, Scotiabank Concacaf League, and the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.